It started in 140 characters or less.
"Good morning folks," Green Bay Packers linebacker Nick Barnett wrote at 8:02 a.m. Tuesday. "Film study day ... This is when I watch so much film that I fall asleep then dream about crushing @ogochocinco."
Within 6 minutes, Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco had typed his response.
"@NickBarnett man I am three steps ahead of you," Ochocinco wrote. "I've watched yall so much I see green and gold, I will run yo a** over!!!!!!!!"
There was a time long, long ago -- say, last fall -- when this half-joking smack talk between old Oregon State University teammates would have transpired privately by phone or text message.
But this past week, each poke was public, each jab read and reposted around the Internet as hundreds of thousands of fans followed the blow-by-blow on their computers and mobile devices.
Welcome to the NFL in the Twitter age.
In a matter of months, "tweeting" has entered the American lexicon and made Twitter.com one of the fastest-growing sites on the Internet, with tens of million of users worldwide microblogging their lives and tracing celebrities' every move.
It's also gained traction rapidly among NFL players, more than 100 of whom utilize the easy-to-use interface to post thousands of short blasts each day about everything from game preparation to what they're doing, watching, eating or thinking.
For fans, it only takes one click to "follow" a player's updates and another to write the player directly. For players, it's a true end-around play in the media game, helping them build an image unobscured by a helmet and shoulder pads -- and a brand that could boost their earning power long after their playing days are over.
"One of the reasons it's exploded is the authenticity of it," said SportsFanLive CEO David Katz, whose company runs the aggregator Web site athletetweets.com. "You get a sense of what these players are thinking and feeling at any given time, which we've never seen before, and you really believe it's coming from their lips and their fingers. And most of the time, it is."
Who's on board
Among NFL players, New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush has the largest network of followers -- more than 304,000 and growing rapidly as of Saturday morning. But no one has a presence on the site quite like Ochocinco, who will square off with Barnett and the Packers at noon Sunday at Lambeau Field.
The flamboyant receiver formerly known as Chad Johnson isn't shy about communicating directly to fans or other celebrities. In a one-hour span on Friday night, he replied to a user named JoeSteelerFan in between tweets to Oprah Winfrey ("trying to become a billionaire, would you consider dating me and dumping after a few months just for the pub"), Britney Spears ("do you need a back up dancer because I'm free on Tuesdays") and President Barack Obama ("im looking for a place to stay when I visit DC, how many rooms in the white house").
Asked in a conference call on Wednesday whether it blew his mind more than 168,000 people were "following" his tweets, Ochocinco said, "No, not really. I don't really pay any mind. Most people follow because I'm very interesting -- very interesting, very different from the rest of the individuals that play this game. You just never know what I'm going to say. You never know what I'm going to do next. Those 168,000 really have a heads-up on what's going to happen before the rest of the world."
By Saturday afternoon, Ochocinco's followers exceeded 175,000.
Barnett was the first Packer on Twitter and by Saturday had more than 17,500 followers, putting him in the top 20 among NFL players. Tight end Jermichael Finley (@jermichaelf88) got on board after watching Barnett spend an entire dinner chatting with fans on his iPhone, and running back Ryan Grant (@RyanGrant25) has built a following rivaling Barnett's since joining over the summer.
In all, about 115 NFL players -- about 7 percent of the league -- have verified Twitter accounts, according to athletetweets.com, which follows more than 400 athletes in all sports. Many have small followings of fewer than 10,000 fans; a few, such as NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, are in the millions.
"TV and newspapers give athletes a few minutes to voice their thoughts," said Deb Frey, author of the forthcoming book "Twittering DaVinci." "Twitter is an unfiltered medium that will allow them to voice their thoughts later after they think about it and after getting away from the spotlight so they can let the world know who they really are."
Potential problems
There are dangers to such an open forum, though.
Unlike other social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, the vast majority of users make their updates available to the public. Say the wrong thing or disclose confidential information, and it can be forwarded (aka "retweeted") around the globe in a matter of minutes.
Redskins tight end Chris Cooley found that out last season, when he posted a photo on his blog that revealed a page from Washington's playbook and an inappropriate part of Cooley's anatomy. San Diego has fined cornerback Antonio Cromartie multiple times this year for his tweets, including one about the quality of food at training camp and another that included a photo of his notes from a team meeting.
"I don't think they quite understood the ramifications of it, the fact that every time they tweeted or whatever that's called, that they were doing a public interview," said Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, who addressed Twitter in a team meeting. "So, make sure that as you do that, what you're saying you would say in any open locker room or open news conference forum, and be careful what you say.
"It's obviously a new age. I don't understand the need to tell somebody that I just went over here or over there, but these guys have that. Unfortunately, it's scary to see the people who care about that."
The NFL has instituted a game-day policy for all social networking sites, barring players, coaches and football operations personnel for posting anything from 90 minutes before kickoff until after postgame media interviews. (Ochocinco, who had planned to tweet from the sideline, threatened to quit Twitter over the policy but later backed off.)
Individual teams also have instituted policies to govern the use of such services at team facilities. With the Packers, getting caught tweeting during a team meeting will cost a player $1,701.
The door is open both ways, too. Many players have resorted to blocking fans who reply to their posts with negative remarks. Baltimore fullback Le'Ron McClain recently said he's banned at least 10 people for racial slurs. There also have been dozens of cases in which imposters pretended to be NFL players, complete with a profile photo and realistic monologue, before the real players got wind and had the sites shut down.
For Jermichael Finley, even the positivity has been too much at times. So many Packers fans were tweeting about him earning a Pro Bowl bid after his strong preseason that, after a one-catch performance in last weekend's season opener, Finley's first tweet as he left the locker room was to say he was quitting Twitter. He was back in full effect within 48 hours.
"I think there's a lot of hype on it," Finley said. "But it's a great way to communicate with the fans and get things out."
The future
Twitter is changing the way NFL news is reported, too.
Many beat reporters and other media personalities have established accounts to get the word out more quickly on breaking stories, and even then, they sometimes can't beat the players themselves. When Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn won the starting job, the news came not from the team or the local media, but from Buffalo Bills receiver Terrell Owens' Twitter account.
Owens (@terrellowens), who is approaching 200,000 followers, also is ahead of the curve on the obvious next step in the Twitter revolution -- mobilizing one's fan club to make money off the medium. Wondering where T.O. got the custom-made Michael Jackson earphones he was wearing before last week's game? Check out his Twitter page for the link.
San Diego linebacker Shawne Merriman (@shawnemerriman) tweets about waking up every day with the energy drink he endorses. Redskins cornerback Champ Bailey (@champbailey) has links to his online memorabilia store. Barnett regularly promotes acts he's signed to his record label, encouraging his followers to call radio stations and request their songs.
"It's almost like a product placement opportunity," said Reggie Bradford, CEO of Vitrue, an Atlanta-based social media marketing company. "I think you will start to see some of that sort of tapped in brand endorsement."
Still, many players remain skeptical.
Only a couple of lockers away from Finley, Packers receivers Greg Jennings and James Jones laugh at the suggestion they'll get sucked in eventually.
"I don't got MySpace, Facebook, Twitter," Jones said. "It's just not me. My friends want to talk to me, call me. You don't got my number, you ain't my friend like that. I'm not a Twitter guy."
"There's no need for any of it, really," interjected Jennings, who does have a Web site (gj85.com) with links to his fan club and a dozen companies and products he endorses.
"To me, it's just a way to get out there, put yourself out there. It's like an open market-type deal. I'm a married man. I've always viewed Facebook and all those type of sites as (methods to) date and meet and meet-and-greet people. Get to know people, socialize, be in their city, go meet 'em. That type of deal, and I couldn't do that."
Even as Jennings spoke, though, the war of written words between Barnett and Ochocinco was continuing, to the curious delight of their legion of followers. Ochocinco made sure to draw attention to the all-in-fun feud by telling reporters to inform Barnett he was "coming for his head" -- old-school bulletin-board material, for anyone who missed what was happening on their computer screens.
"@OGOchocinco Was I suppose be scared?????" Lol lol all I know is if you come across the middle.. You can go head and....KISS DA BABY ..."
"@NickBarnett dude I will beat you up on the field, off the field, whatever, when I come cross the middle I'll hit you in your mouth boy!!!!"
